Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Inside College Hockey has the Pioneers ranked #5 in the first Poll of the season. They mentioned that DU would have been a consensus #1 pick, but for goaltender Sam Brittain's injury, surgery and rehab.

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The DU men's basketball program is in the running an Adidas Super 64 elite player. Dalante Dunklin (San Diego/Francis Parker - 5'11 senior), a stocky point guard prospect who made some significant plays at both ends down the stretch in a Las Vegas summer tournament. Dunklin has offers from University of San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly and the University of Denver.

He makes more money than you do for the exact same thing. DU might have a small fan base but it's nice of you to hang out here since you can't get your fill with the other mindless fans down in the springs.

I think it's interesting that Brittain would be single-handedly the diference-maker like that in a poll; because I bet that if Britt's injury hadn't of happened and right now everything were normal and on track as expected, DU would already be saying that Sam & Adam would be platooning early in 2011.Lot of freshmen on the roster, and alot of very good hockey players. I like DU's position early on. That opening Massacusets weekend will be a tremendous "tone setter" for the young Pioneers. I'm excited to get the season underway. I do see that the USANTDPU18 2011 roster is posted on thier website, so you can get a glimpse of who's coming to Colorado in October. The Canadian universities DU usually plays during pre-season are typically very slow to update thier websites/rosters before the season starts. The McGill Redmen still have last year's team listed.

I think players like Sam are big difference makers in their impact on chemistry and confidence as much or more than their individual talent level.

Jesse was a great player that we missed, but I think the impact went beyond missing his stats, but considering his line's stats, and the stats that are affected by having to move lines around for the rest of the season. The MOM line was great to have.

Hockey is such a team sport that individual personalities make it easy to forget about the teamwork involved. Bozak was an exception in that he, by himself, made a huge difference. Brittain isn't quite yet Cheverie or Mannino- such a dominant goalie that he should singlehandedly save a lot of games- but his absence is probably worth a few ranking spots considering how unstable things just feel with Murray in net, and the way the d-system works around him.

Not sure that having him would convince me that DU is #1 though. I think it will be largely dependent on defensive chemistry (a weak spot as of late), which is hard to call at this point.

DU should be a 3.5 - 4.0 GPG offense next year - With point producers such as Zucker, the Shores, Bennett, and Salazar and puck solid-puck movers like Makowski, Laleggia and Philips, scroring should be good.

As long as Murray and the Finn can keep teams at or under 3 GPG and at around a .900-.910 in saves pct, DU should be just good enough to get into the NCAAs as 3rd or fourth place WCHA team. Adding Brittain, (in his last year's .925 form), would turn into DU a WCHA top level team and a Frozen Four contender.

Last season's stats offer some clues to this upcoming season. DU scored 3.2 goals per game, 18.6% on the power play and scored as many goals in the third period as the first two periods combined.

Until and unless DU gets scoring production out of their 3rd & 4th lines and the power play hovers closer to 25%, they are not going to score 3.5 goals per game, much less 4.0

Why the goal onslaught in the third period? Double shifting the big guns and wearing opponents down in tight games last season.

No doubt the top six can score, but are any of them good enough to carry to marginal scorers to greater heights. Jon Foster made Geoff Paukovich and J.D. Corbin decent forwards in 2005. Bozak made those around him better in the two seasons he was here.

If we stack the top two lines with the 5 that Swami mentions above, those 3rd and 4th liners are Mermis, Larraza, Knowlton, Doremus, Ostrow, Jackson, Dewhurst and several other freshman (man, we have a lot of new guys).

IMO, that's as solid of a 3rd and 4th line crew that we've had since the Foster year you mention DG. However, I think I'd like to see the wealth spread out a bit.

My thought pretty much revolves around the "Goal Czar theory of relativity". Put him on a line with a dynamic player (Bozak/Zucker), he's suddenly a dynamic player putting up great stats. Put him on a 3rd or 4th line and his contribution drops dramatically. The same could occur with a guy like Ostrow this year. Maybe some other guys too. Spread the wealth and only consolidate the lines if we need to late in games.

Or, maybe the goal cZar just needs to be on a line with a guy with a matching Z in his name like Zucker and boZak. Too bad Nolan isn't coming until next year. A power play unit of Zajac, salaZar, Zucker, olsZweski and larraZa would be unstoppable.